Anthony 21x
New member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2008
- Messages
- 9
One afternoon a few years ago a pilot flying a small Cessna airplane departed from an airport off the coast of California and headed out over the Pacific Ocean to deliver supplies to a small island resort. After dropping off the supplies he was warned of an approaching storm and advised not to make the return trip. After reviewing the situation, the pilot that he could easily beat the storm front and decided to return home. After 2 hours of flight the pilot became concerned when he could not see land. Although all of his gauges appeared to be functioning, upon further inspection the pilot found that they were giving erroneous readings. Lost over the Pacific and getting dark, the pilot radioed an SOS message as the storm quickly approached and fuel reserves became dangerously low.
Although the SOS message was never received, the coastal airport became concerned when the pilot was overdue. As a result, the control tower sent a message to all commercial aircraft over the Pacific and asked them to attempt to raise the lost pilot. The Captain of a 707 flying from Hawaii to San Francisco was able to successfully raise the Cessna. However, he had no way of knowing exactly where the young pilot was located. A 26 year veteran of the airlines, the Captain immediately ordered the lost pilot to switch his radio to a frequency which had a maximum radius of 100 miles and asked him to fly in a small circle so that his position would not change. The Captain then flew his jet due east as fast as he could until he lost radio contact with the Cessna. Upon losing contact, the Captain then flew back into the radio airspace of the Cessna and performed the experiment again, only this time flying on a different heading than before. Using this information, the Captain was able to locate the young pilot and guide him to safety only minutes before the small plane ran out of fuel.
Assume you are the Captain of the 707. Draw a diagram depicting this situation and use your knowledge of trigonometry to devise a plan for finding the small aircraft. You may use that fact that distance = rate x time and make assumptions as to time and speed traveled by the 707. (Be sure to ONLY use trig)
Although the SOS message was never received, the coastal airport became concerned when the pilot was overdue. As a result, the control tower sent a message to all commercial aircraft over the Pacific and asked them to attempt to raise the lost pilot. The Captain of a 707 flying from Hawaii to San Francisco was able to successfully raise the Cessna. However, he had no way of knowing exactly where the young pilot was located. A 26 year veteran of the airlines, the Captain immediately ordered the lost pilot to switch his radio to a frequency which had a maximum radius of 100 miles and asked him to fly in a small circle so that his position would not change. The Captain then flew his jet due east as fast as he could until he lost radio contact with the Cessna. Upon losing contact, the Captain then flew back into the radio airspace of the Cessna and performed the experiment again, only this time flying on a different heading than before. Using this information, the Captain was able to locate the young pilot and guide him to safety only minutes before the small plane ran out of fuel.
Assume you are the Captain of the 707. Draw a diagram depicting this situation and use your knowledge of trigonometry to devise a plan for finding the small aircraft. You may use that fact that distance = rate x time and make assumptions as to time and speed traveled by the 707. (Be sure to ONLY use trig)
